UPM-Kymmene

UPM-Kymmene and Stora Enso are being driven towards a merger of
their European units by a relentless fall in demand and prices in
the digital era. Now after years of speculation about a possible
tie-up, investors have in recent weeks raised bets UPM and Stora
will fold most of their paper businesses into a joint venture over
the next year.

Such a move, followed by more mill closures, would help trim output
and costs and allow the owners to focus more on their growth areas
such as pulp and packaging board. The cuts could also help
stabilize market prices and make

Two Paper machines will be closed by UPM—the paper machine 3 at the
UPM Rauma mill in Finland; and the paper machine 4 at the Ettringen
mill in Germany. The number of employees will be reduced by 87 in
the UPM Rauma mill and by 150 in the UPM Ettringen mill.

The acquisition of Myllykoski has made UPM the undisputed leader in
publication papers. We can now serve our customers even better than
before with a best in class offering—products, services, reliable
and accessible supplies and sustainable operations.

UPM will permanently close down the unprofitable Albbruck paper
mill in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The mill manufactures coated
magazine papers on three production lines with a combined annual
capacity of 320,000 tonnes. Discussions between UPM, employee
representatives and local authorities did not lead to a solution
for continuing the operations at the mill.

UPM will permanently cease production at the Myllykoski paper mill
by the end of this year. The personnel reductions will affect 371
people at the mill and 21 people at Myllykoski Corp. and Myllykoski
Sales Nordic. The company and its employees were unable to
establish a way to meet the commercial requirements for
continuation of operations at the mill during employee negotiations

As a result of its operations review with the integration of
Myllykoski assets, UPM plans to adjust its magazine paper capacity
by permanently removing 1.3 million tonnes of production. This will
reduce its staffing by approximately 1,170 people.

“When the strike begins, we most probably must start to running
down paper mills already within a couple of days,” said Jyrki
Ovaska, president of UPM’s Paper Business Group. The two-week
strike is set to begin on April 6.

UPM-Kymmene Corp. confirms that it is engaged in discussions with
the Finnish publication paper company Myllykoski Group concerning a
potential transaction of Myllykoski's operations in Finland,
Germany and United States. At the present time, the discussions
continue and a number of significant issues remain unresolved.

Kevin Joyce, chief marketing officer of Kodak’s Graphic
Communications Group, is now a member of The Print Council’s
Executive Committee. The Print Council is a business development
alliance dedicated to promoting the greater use of print media.
manroland Canada has named Michael Mugavero as its new vice
president of sales. Based out of manroland Canada headquarters in
Vaughn, Ontario, Mugavero is now responsible for managing direct
sales for sheetfed presses and assisting with sales on the web end
of the business, in addition to maintaining his responsibilities
for Eastern U.S. sales. At G.F. Puhl, Greg Bumb has been tapped as
the new